


Vance, Confused

by Amber_and_Ash



Category: NCIS
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-07-14 10:52:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7168145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amber_and_Ash/pseuds/Amber_and_Ash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Unconnected snapshots about Vance and his impressions of the MCRT team.  Mostly the earlier years, and inevitably pro-Tony.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Vance breaks up the MCRT

**Author's Note:**

> I'm posting some of the snippets that I realise are never going to form part of a longer work, in case they amuse anyone. Be aware that none of the ideas here will be developed or extended. If you do wish to adopt anything, just ask.

Agent Mitchell, on the whole, couldn't say he cared much that Shepard was out and Vance was in. The director of NCIS was usually far too important to concern themselves with the inner workings of the property crimes and burglary unit. He also couldn't say that he cared much about the scuttlebutt that Director Vance intended to break Gibb’s power by separating his team and sending them every-which-where. He wasn't a man who needed to stay connected to the social pulse of the building to feel accepted. Unfortunately for his stress levels, an exception to the usual neglect might just cause an exception to his dismissal of gossip - Mitchell‘s own team was going to be short one SFA soon.

So instead of a relaxing morning on analysis, Mitchell spent it feverishly on compiling excellent reasons why promoting within the team and hiring a new agent would result in just the sort of balanced, modern team the new Director was rumoured to like.

It wasn’t that Mitchell would have objected to working with DiNozzo - DiNozzo was dedicated, skilled, and almost super-human in his ability to find connections. But putting him in as SFA was a disaster waiting to happen. On one side, DiNozzo would inevitably got bored of the minor crimes they would be given. On the other, the team was well aware of DiNozzo's expertise and experience, and there'd be a strong tendency to defer to him. With the best will in the world, that kind of divided command could get very messy, very fast.

All of that very sound logic should have prepared him for the actual proposal, but Mitchell was still caught out.

“So, how do you feel about Agent McGee as your new Senior Field Agent?”

Mitchell choked on his water, and had to bend over to recover. Was Vance seriously asking how he felt about taking one of the vigilante duo onto his team? Mitchell might not spend much time listening to scuttlebutt, but it wasn't like he was unaware of the various gambling pools about just how McGee was avoiding being fired or even jail time for the hacking he did for personal gain, the intermittent obstruction of justice when it came to friends and family, and that defamatory book he had written. But even the little stuff McGee did, the every day in-advance-of-a-warrant stuff, could torpedo their team. A judge might be willing to look the other way when there was a kidnapped child involved, but they were hardly going to be as forgiving when it came to a stolen microwave. Mitchell was no Gibbs to scare lawyers and internal affairs away, or a DiNozzo to confuse and sweet-talk them out of investigating.

Well. If the director was still wearing his rose-coloured glasses, Mitchell was hardly about to risk himself and rip them off. He would just have to go with his prepared arguments. “In all honesty, Director, I feel that would throw off the balance. I believe we can achieve the most efficient team if we—“


	2. Vance trips over consequences of Gibb's Mexican Vacation

Vance tried to loom from where he sat behind the table, and Tony thought he should have chosen to be either intimidating or dismissive, because the combination just looked ridiculous. "Let me understand this correctly, DiNozzo. You are claiming that you have violated no privacy concerns by having read a full copy of Agent McGee's records, because this all occurred while Agent Gibbs was on medical leave in Mexico."

Tony replied evenly, "I read it while Agent Gibbs was away, because at the time it was a requirement of my role, yes."

"Just one small problem there, DiNozzo," said Vance, exaggerating the sarcasm a little too heavily. "An acting supervisory agent does not have either that obligation or that right. Being as how they are just temporary stand-ins for the people more qualified to hold the position."

Oh, Tony was going to have so much fun playing the innocent on this one. "Seriously?"

"Oh, I think you'll find I treat this kind of violation very seriously, DiNozzo."

Tony kept his expression clear of his first reaction to that utter absurdity. People violated privacy for fun and profit with Vance's enthusiastic support on a regular basis. "I apologise for my reaction, Director, I was just surprised that you had not already been informed about Director Shepard's irregularity concerning the matter. Gibbs was under the impression that he'd formally resigned, and so Shepard didn't inform anyone about the 'acting' part of that title. Not me, and not HR."

Director Vance stared at him, and Tony slipped in the killing blow with some more innocent reminiscences. Tony had external witnesses. “You should see my payslips for the time period after Gibbs got back. Accountancy wanted to retroactively drop me a pay grade and reclaim the amount they’d 'over-paid' me, while legal wanted to at diminish the grounds under which I could sue, and leave me at the higher pay bracket permanently. Depending on which department had seen my file last when payroll ran, I’d have random amounts of my salary taken away or given back. Eventually everyone decided the difference was hazard pay for the undercover work I was doing, with the source concealed because of the sensitivity of the operation, but it was a fun couple of months. Believe me, if I’d known that was coming, I might have taken the Rota position after all.”

“Rota?”

“Jen… that is, Director Sheppard offered my lead of MCRT Rota in exchange for not objecting to Gibbs being re-instated. It is in my files.”

Vance looked more grim than Tony had been expecting. “No, as it happens, it’s not.”

“Ah. Well, since I turned her down, it hardly matters. Anyway, glad we could clear that up so easily. Was there anything else, Director?”  _You'll have to find some other made-up cause to censor me, I'm afraid. This one won't play._

"No. You may go."

Tony sauntered out. DiNozzo undefeated, once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really would like to know what happened to Tony's paychecks. And wouldn't he have had to sign a new contract when he was promoted to SSA? What would have happened to that?


	3. Vance investigates the team's computer skills

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vance finds Tim surprisingly pro-Tony

Vance arranged for his meeting with Agent McGee at a time when the rest of the team was occupied. He knew McGee could stand up for himself, but he didn't see why he should have to do so on quite so regular a basis. “Agent McGee, I have been reviewing the skill matrices of the MCRT, and I have just a few questions I was hoping you could answer for me."

McGee looked around, like he was expecting someone to be standing behind him. More proof that the team made him feel oppressed, if Vance had needed any. "Everyone else is-- I guess I can try. What would you like to know?"

"Who would you consider the second most competent computer user in your team, after you?” asked Vance, keeping the current answer of 'DiNozzo' out of sight.

"Tony," replied McGee instantly, without a pause for thought.

"Agent DiNozzo?"

Some of his incredulity must have shown in his voice, because McGee was looking at him with a puzzled frown. McGee said, "Well, yes. Of course. With Gibbs and Ziva as the other two options, it's not like that's a hard competition. A better question would be whether Tony to be more competent than _Abby_.”

Ah. Vance moved back in his chair slightly. He should have known Gibbs abused forensic resources to make up for the shortcomings of his own team. "Which he isn't.”

McGee's frown didn't lift. “No, actually, that depends on what we're talking about. Sure, number crunching would be Abby all the way. But if it comes to hacking, Tony has her beat by a mile.”

Vance opened his mouth and then closed it again when he came up with nothing to say.

McGee used the silence to continue. “Hacking isn't number crunching much anymore. I mean sometimes, but usually it's better and faster to do it through social engineering. Tony is a real master at that.”

Vance said mildly, “Forgive me, but I'm not familiar with the latest jargon. Social engineering?”

McGee waved his hands. “Uh, a psychological attack on the people rather than a physical attack on the system. I mean, sometimes it's this whole undercover operation thing, with fake technician uniforms and all, but mostly it's just phoning your target up and asking for their password.”

Vance's eyes flickered. “But our targets are not little old ladies helping a Nigerian prince here. People with actual access to sensitive data would never be that stupid.”

"You'd think," said Tim, "And most of them even get training against it, but people are people. It comes down to how it's pretexted. Take exactly the right approach, and the person won't even remember having done it in the first place. Tony even got me once, just to prove to me that he could. I mean, not that Tony's ever done anything illegal or...”

“Thank you, Agent McGee,” Vance cut of his rambling, and after a few more innocuous questions, sent him back to his desk.

Vance stayed late that night, reading all the government information on social engineering. They didn't all seem to share a common definition of the term, but the ones to do with computers all seemed to agree – security had passed its tipping point. The technology had matured and improved to the point where the weakest point of a system was the human users. From then on out, that would become increasingly true. It was just twilight zone material to consider _DiNozzo_ to be the model of an agent of the future.

He shook his head. It wasn't really computer skills DiNozzo had; it was undercover skills. And undercover work was time intensive, expensive and unnecessarily dangerous to human resources. Electronic surveillance was still the right way to go in the long run. Vance stuffed the matrices back in the file and went home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tend to find that reading real-life accounts of secure data leaking is a similar experience as finding out how a magic trick is done - "I can't believe it was that simple. Are people really that easy to fool?"


	4. Vance is forced to prepare an award speech for DiNozzo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This started its life as part of The Yard, but has long since been orphaned.

Vance sighed to himself. Someone had decided that Agent DiNozzo was a hero and wanted him to get a full on awards ceremony. It wasn’t that the man _hadn’t_ been brave or that he _hadn’t_ saved those children’s lives. Vance was just irritated that, once again, the recognition was going for some grandstanding act that happened after a massive screw-up, when there was never any recognition for the day to day actions that prevented screw-ups from happening in the first place. No recognition for the actions that saved thousands of children, just the actions that saved three. No recognition for the McGees of the world, just for the DiNozzos.

But he knew politics as well as a law enforcement, and he knew when not to fight a battle. He’d write up a good speech about how wonderful the man was. At least working in Gibb’s team all these years, he’d have plenty of impressive sounding cases he could honestly say the man had worked on. Although, knowing how Team Gibbs liked to rack up interdepartmental complaints, he might have to be diplomatic there, too.

He picked up the ‘intradepartmental communications’ folder in the actual _print_ copy of the man’s files he’d demanded, and started flipping. Complaint—resolved without prejudice. Good. He could use the case without rousing any hackles, then, if absolutely necessary. Another, another, an—wait. Those weren’t complaints. Those were just communications. And was that a commendation? What the… He went through the pile more slowly and separated out another eleven commendation letters and no less than four recommendations for awards. And they were recommendations for cases he didn’t even remember. Ones that had been resolved quietly and without anyone fucking up. Awards he would have been hard pressed not to give if they’d ever landed on his desk. Which they hadn’t. It took a moment, then Vance realised why – Agent you-don’t-need-awards-for-doing-your-job Gibbs.

Vance called down and asked for the rest of the team’s files. If DiNozzo’s files looked like this, he could only imagine how impressive McGee’s was. It wasn’t right that he had been labouring so unappreciated all this time. Of course, if he gave McGee some awards, he’d have to give DiNozzo some too, but it was a small price to pay. He needn’t let it get out of hand.

He sat down with McGee’s with a sense of anticipation. The first was a complaint about illegal hacking into a sensitive server. A misunderstanding, surely, and it was a mere oversight that it hadn’t been resolved. The next was a complaint about unprofessional conduct towards the local LEOs. That one must be McGee taking the blame for something Gibbs or DiNozzo had done. He’d seen them all but order McGee to be rude on other occasions, after all. A communication, then… another complaint about hacking. Hacking, again. Violating the integrity of a crime scene. Failure to obey lawful orders. Hacking. Insubordination. There were some straight forward communications in there as well, but only two commendations – and both those were addressed to the team as a whole, not to McGee in person.

Vance pushed the files away from him angrily. He wanted to believe that the rest of the law enforcement community was just as biased in favour of a charming jock above a hard working intellectual as the rest of the world. But his common sense didn’t let him swallow that rationalisation for long. This wasn’t the file of an efficient functionary who everyone overlooked. This was the file of an arrogant cowboy who everyone hated. And which was more likely - that McGee had put on a false front when dealing with Vance, or that he put on a false front when dealing with every single other member of the law enforcement community?

Vance knew, knew without a doubt, that the direction he wanted to push the NCIS in was correct. Less brute force and more intelligence. Less ego and more process. Less endangering lives of agents and more preventing the endangerment of marines and sailors. He just had the rather sinking feeling he has chosen exactly the wrong poster boy for his crusade.

Vance pulled DiNozzo’s file towards him again, and started jotting down notes for his speech. His stomach knotted at the derision his effusive praise was likely to get from the man in question, but this was the right thing to do, not just politically but ethically. DiNozzo would get his reward, and all the other ones he had coming to him. McGee would whatever reprimands were warranted. Vance would not be standing back and letting Gibbs handle it all any longer. Not if Vance wanted the NCIS to become the organisation he knew it could be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One where Vance does come to change his mind, to wrap things up - this is the last of the Vance snippets I had in my files. Hope you all enjoyed them :)


End file.
